MONTPELIER – Signs of Barbara Snelling are everywhere in the Vermont Statehouse, one of many places she worked.

There’s the portrait outside the House Chamber of former Gov. Richard Snelling, her husband and partner in politics, and the many formal Statehouse furnishings for which she raised money. And on Friday, as dozens of people gathered for a memorial service, a few old stories returned to the halls.

David Dillon, who worked for Gov. Snelling, recalled that the governor would only take input from his wife.

Dillon stood at the podium in the House of Representatives and recalled that the governor would sometimes step back from that podium, reaching behind him for another page of a major speech.

“Barbara was in the back, still editing,” Dillon said to laughter.

Barbara Snelling, who died Nov. 2 in South Burlington at age 87, went on to become Vermont’s lieutenant governor and a state senator.

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Members of the Snelling family listen Friday during a memorial service for Barbara Snelling, the wife of former Gov. Richard Snelling, a leader in Vermont education and community development, and a lieutenant governor and state senator.(Photo: APRIL BURBANK/FREE PRESS)

Colleagues respected Snelling for her perseverance after the death of her husband in 1991 and her own health challenges.

“Barbara’s passing marks, in a way, the end of an era,” said former Gov. Jim Douglas, who served in the Legislature with Richard Snelling and later worked as his executive assistant. “She and her husband dominated our political scene in Vermont for so many years. They were both larger than life.”

The crowd in Montpelier included Gov. Peter Shumlin, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who lost to Richard Snelling in the 1990 race for governor.

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Mark Snelling, left, and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch stand Friday for "one last round of applause" for former Gov. Richard Snelling and former Lt. Gov. Barbara Snelling at a memorial service for Barbara Snelling in the House Chamber in Montpelier.(Photo: APRIL BURBANK/FREE PRESS)

Some well-wishers wore pins that declared “aggressive woman at work” — a nod to an exchange between Snelling and former House Speaker Ralph Wright that doubled as a tribute to Snelling’s leadership roles that were unusual for women at the time.

“I learned that Barbara was initially invited on to nonprofit boards, like United Way’s, as the token woman at the table,” said Martha Maksym, executive director of United Way of Chittenden County. “But she was as far from a token as a person could be.”

Snelling, a longtime Shelburne resident, held such a variety of roles in Vermont education and nonprofits that counting them proved a challenge for some friends.

Snelling served on 14 education-related boards and committees and was a founding member of eight organizations, including Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, said Val Gardner, the high school’s former principal.

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Vermont Sen. Diane Snelling speaks about her mother, Barbara Snelling, at a memorial service at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday. Diane Snelling succeeded her mother as a state senator.(Photo: APRIL BURBANK/FREE PRESS)

Other roles for Snelling included fundraising for the University of Vermont and for Friends of the Vermont Statehouse.

“She had a love for Vermont that burned brightly until the day she died,” said Snelling’s son, Mark Snelling.

Shumlin ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff through Sunday.

This article was first published online Friday, Nov. 13, 2015. Contact April Burbank at 802-660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank